Which post-sabbath guitarists do you think have really changed the face of metal in a big way (and by big I mean what Hendrix did to PsychRock and Blues, or what The Doors did to Rock and Roll).For me it would be:

What did The Doors do for rock and roll? Proved that songs can have both crappy lyrics and a crappy repeating riff and still be popular?

~Eddie Van Halen. I'm not saying he invented shred(See: Jazz) or metal + shred(See: Uli Jon Roth), but Van Halen I was definitely one of the first big victories as far as commercial success of guitar-heavy, shred/shredesque lead guitar hard rock/lighter metal.~Speaking of Uli Jon Roth, Uli Jon Roth. He was being Yngwie before Yngwie was being Yngwie, and he was doing it better. Still is, too. He was doing that stuff that every metal lead guitarist does nowadays back in the 70's.~Speaking of Yngwie, Yngwie. Uli does it better, longer, but, whereas Rising Force has been given multiple guitar-based awards, won Grammies, and got into the billboard top 100, a big feat for a half-instrumental neoclassical shredfest even in the 80's, I can't really think of much success Roth has had since the Scorpions - Yngwie popularized the style, which has been absorbed into a lot of modern metal shredders.~Tosin Abasi. He's like a cocktail of Andy McKee, Michael Angelo Batio plus taste, and Steve Vai, with a side of Jeff Beck, seasoned with a little Al Di Meola for good measure. The guy is terrifyingly good.

but i DO think tosin should be on there. he is ridiculous.whenever i try to learn anything by AAL it makes me hate guitar, while loving tosin even more.

EDIT: holy shit theogonia i was born ONE DAY before you. thats crazy.you are the closest person in age on UG to me that ive seen haha

yes, i'm very fond of Animals as Leaders, and while i agree that Tosin Abasi is very creative, from the OP i take the thread to be about guitarists who really helped to change metal, which Tosin Abasi really hasn't done. perhaps in the future you could say so, but at this point, you really can't say they have "changed metal."

and i'm aware of that, i made a comment about that a while back.

Quote by necrosis1193

Wait, now I'm confused. Are we talking influential, unique, or both?

the title implies unique, but the OP implies influential, as does TS's picks for the thread, so i'd assume that was his intention.

There's no such thing; there never was. Where I am going you cannot follow me now.

Definitely not enough Frederik Thorendal in here. All of you guys saying Tosin Abasi and Misha Mansoor can thank Thorendal for paving the road and making sure that it lead to Rome, so to speak. Seriously, though, his angular riffage and his alien-sounding and occasionally atonal solos really stand out as unique to me in metal. And he's definitely been really influential in creating the blueprint that so many djent players try to emulate.

Added massive amounts of melody to extremely heavy riffs that have odd time signatures and made such music more accessible to a lot of people. Periphery ****ing rule basically.

sigh...

Periphery is not that melodic. "massive amounts of melody" is a huge over statement. compare them to any melodeath, power metal, or folk metal bands, and they are not very melodic at all.

as far as extremely heavy riffs, they really aren't "heavy," and before you say anything about how low tuned they are, read these (1, 2, 3)

for odd time signatures, Periphery does not use nearly as many as most people seem to think they do. a lot of their stuff has more syncopated than odd time signatures. stuff Ron Jarzombek does (Spastic Ink, Blotted Science, etc) has a lot of odd time signatures, jazz fusion has a lot of odd time signatures, mathcore and mathrock have a lot of odd time signature. Periphery does have a decent amount, but not as nearly as many as those.

and Periphery ****ing ruling or not is irrelevant.

There's no such thing; there never was. Where I am going you cannot follow me now.